MANKATO — It’s not often you get the tango sound from an orchestra, but that’s the case when the Mankato Symphony Orchestra opens its 75th subscription season Oct. 18 with a “Latin Pulse.” Because the concert is in the Kato Ballroom, dancing is not out of the question.
The Latin flavor comes through MSO’s collaboration with Mankato Old Town’s Day of the Dead Festival, which is Oct. 25 on North Riverfront Drive. The historic ballroom will host El Mexicano and Delicious Pupusas food trucks and bar service.
In its inaugural collaboration last year, the concert followed the daylong festival. Mankato West High is a construction zone this year, and the concert preceding the festival by a week makes it a bit of a lead-in.
The flavor also comes, of course, through the musical selections, beginning with Astor Piazzolla’s “Cuatro Estaciones Portenas,” a variation of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” that blends the familiar with the unique sound of Latin passion and pride. It features violin solos by MSO concertmaster Sabrina Tabby.
The translation of the title is “The Four Seasons in Buenos Aires,” Tabby said. Not only does it exemplify the spirit of the city in Argentina, but because that city is in the Southern Hemisphere, it juxtaposes the characteristics of the seasons as many of us in the Northern Hemisphere experience them.
“The Vivaldi ‘Four Seasons’ are extraordinary, but Piazzolla made his own version,” she said. For this concert, the seasons will start with summer and go through spring, another sign of the flexibility for the popular piece that has been rewritten for various instrumental configurations.
“This version was actually arranged by a violinist who was regularly working with Piazzolla, and he added some quotes from Vivaldi … that really match very well,” Tabby said. Because her husband, Ernesto Estigarribia Mussi, MSO’s music director, is from Paraguay, she is familiar with the 180-degree twist of the northern seasons but it was more apparent in this piece.
“The first half of the program is all Sabrina, and it’s just a really cool and difficult and fun Piazzolla piece,” said Bethel Balge, MSO executive director. Familiar with many versions of the Vivaldi “Four Seasons” as a pianist, she noted that the spring movement is a good ending piece.
Excited to return to a location that has only been used a couple of times by the symphony, being at the Kato Ballroom offers many opportunities. They can be close to Old Town, where the Day of the Dead Festival takes place, and it also allows display of decorations provided by festival organizer Justin Ek, a parking lot for the food trucks that will begin serving at 5:30 p.m. in advance of the 7 p.m. concert, and a couple of other things tied in with the 75th anniversary.
Money raised during a silent auction will go toward matching the $75,000 donation from the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation, plus an opportunity for young people to sit with members of the orchestra to gain the experience of seeing what it’s like.
This concert gives Tabby the opportunity to be soloist. In a way, it ties in well with her work as concertmaster, which has both a ritualistic and functional role.
“The concertmaster is considered like the representative leader of the orchestra,” she said. “Whenever we make musical choices, it’s usually like the buck stops with the concertmaster, and in terms of choosing a bowing” of the instruments.
In addition, the concertmaster acts a bit as a liaison between orchestra members and conductor, answering questions themselves or, if needed, taking them to the conductor. In addition, during concerts the concertmaster is the one who can be seen and helps individual instruments by leading with specific movements that the conductor can’t always provide.
“On the violin there’s, like, it’s a very nuanced instrument. Just the way we use the bow and the timing of everything (means) the concertmaster can be this reference for everybody to do it exactly together,” she said.
The travel time from their home to Mankato provides that private opportunity to share thoughts that come from the orchestra, Tabby said.
“I love working with Ernesto and we travel from Nashville to come play. It’s wonderful to travel together,” she said. “And just being a part of the Mankato community has been a beautiful perk of the job. The audiences are so warm.”